Granville County is a

county A county is a geographic region of a country used for administrative or other purposesChambers Dictionary, L. Brookes (ed.), 2005, Chambers Harrap Publishers Ltd, Edinburgh in certain modern nations. The term is derived from the Old French ...

located on the northern border of the

U.S. state In the United States, a state is a constituent political entity, of which there are 50. Bound together in a political union, each state holds governmental jurisdiction over a separate and defined geographic territory where it shares its sover ...

North Carolina North Carolina () is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States. The state is the 28th largest and 9th-most populous of the United States. It is bordered by Virginia to the north, the Atlantic Ocean to the east, Georgia and So ...

. As of the 2020 census, the population was 60,992. Its

county seat A county seat is an administrative center, seat of government, or capital city of a county or civil parish. The term is in use in Canada, China, Hungary, Romania, Taiwan, and the United States. The equivalent term shire town is used in the US st ...

Oxford Oxford () is a city in England. It is the county town and only city of Oxfordshire. In 2020, its population was estimated at 151,584. It is north-west of London, south-east of Birmingham and north-east of Bristol. The city is home to the ...

. Granville County encompasses Oxford, NC Micropolitan Statistical Area, which is also included in the

Raleigh Raleigh (; ) is the capital city of the state of North Carolina and the seat of Wake County in the United States. It is the second-most populous city in North Carolina, after Charlotte. Raleigh is the tenth-most populous city in the Southeas ...

Durham Durham most commonly refers to: *Durham, England, a cathedral city and the county town of County Durham *County Durham, an English county * Durham County, North Carolina, a county in North Carolina, United States *Durham, North Carolina, a city in N ...

Chapel Hill Chapel Hill or Chapelhill may refer to: Places Antarctica * Chapel Hill (Antarctica) Australia *Chapel Hill, Queensland, a suburb of Brisbane *Chapel Hill, South Australia, in the Mount Barker council area Canada * Chapel Hill, Ottawa, a neighbo ...

, NC

Combined Statistical Area Combined statistical area (CSA) is a United States Office of Management and Budget (OMB) term for a combination of adjacent metropolitan (MSA) and micropolitan statistical areas (µSA) across the 50 US states and the territory of Puerto Ric ...

. The county has access to

Kerr Lake Kerr Lake /kɑr/ (officially John H. Kerr Reservoir, also known as Bugg's Island Lake) is a reservoir along the border of the U.S. states of North Carolina and Virginia. It is impounded by the John H. Kerr Dam, constructed between 1947 and 1952 t ...

and

Falls Lake Falls Lake is a 12,410 acre (50 km²) reservoir located in Durham, Wake, and Granville counties in North Carolina, United States. Falls Lake extends up the Neuse River to its source at the confluence of the Eno, Little, and Flat rivers. ...

and is part of the Roanoke,

Tar Tar is a dark brown or black viscous liquid of hydrocarbons and free carbon, obtained from a wide variety of organic materials through destructive distillation. Tar can be produced from coal, wood, petroleum, or peat. "a dark brown or black bit ...

and Neuse River watersheds.

History

The county was formed by English colonists in 1746 from

Edgecombe County Edgecombe County is a county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. As of the 2020 census, the population was 48,900. Its county seat is Tarboro. Edgecombe County is part of the Rocky Mount, North Carolina, Metropolitan Statistical Area ...

. It was named for

John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville John Carteret, 2nd Earl Granville, 7th Seigneur of Sark, (; 22 April 16902 January 1763), commonly known by his earlier title Lord Carteret, was a British statesman and Lord President of the Council from 1751 to 1763; he worked extremely close ...

, who as heir to one of the eight original

Lords Proprietors A lord proprietor is a person granted a royal charter for the establishment and government of an English colony in the 17th century. The plural of the term is "lords proprietors" or "lords proprietary". Origin In the beginning of the European ...

of the

Province of Carolina Province of Carolina was a province of England (1663–1707) and Great Britain (1707–1712) that existed in North America and the Caribbean from 1663 until partitioned into North and South on January 24, 1712. It is part of present-day Alaba ...

, claimed one eighth of the land granted in the charter of 1665. The claim was established as consisting of approximately the northern half of North Carolina, and this territory came to be known as the

Granville District The Granville District (or Granville's district) was an approximately 60-mile wide strip of land in the North Carolina colony adjoining the boundary with the Province of Virginia, lying between north latitudes 35° 34' and 36° 30'. From 1663 unti ...

, also known as Oxford. In 1752, parts of Granville, Bladen, and Johnston counties were combined to form

Orange County Orange County most commonly refers to: *Orange County, California, part of the Los Angeles metropolitan area Orange County may also refer to: U.S. counties *Orange County, Florida, containing Orlando *Orange County, Indiana *Orange County, New ...

. In 1764, the eastern part of Granville County was reassigned to the new Bute County. Finally, in 1881, parts of Granville,

Franklin Franklin may refer to: People * Franklin (given name) * Franklin (surname) * Franklin (class), a member of a historical English social class Places Australia * Franklin, Tasmania, a township * Division of Franklin, federal electoral d ...

, and

Warren A warren is a network of wild rodent or lagomorph, typically rabbit burrows. Domestic warrens are artificial, enclosed establishment of animal husbandry dedicated to the raising of rabbits for meat and fur. The term evolved from the medieval A ...

counties were taken to be combined as Vance County. John Penn (1741-1788) was born in Carolina County, VA and was a planter and politician of early America. After passing the bar , Penn moved to Granville County in 1774. The county had become the hub of Carolina's independence campaign. A remarkable orator, Penn had earned a place at the Third Provincial Congress of 1775, and he replaced

Richard Caswell Richard Caswell (August 3, 1729November 10, 1789) was an American politician and lawyer who served as the first and fifth governor of the state of North Carolina from 1776 to 1780 and from 1785 to 1787. He also served as a senior officer of mil ...

, joining

William Hooper William Hooper (June 28, 1742 October 14, 1790) was an American Founding Father, lawyer, and politician. As a member of the Continental Congress representing North Carolina, Hooper signed the Continental Association and the Declaration of ...

and

Joseph Hewes Joseph Hewes (July 9, 1730– November 10, 1779) was an American Founding Father, a signer of the Continental Association and U.S. Declaration of Independence, and a native of Princeton, New Jersey, where he was born in 1730. Hewes's parents were ...

in Philadelphia for the convening of the Continental Congress in 1776. Later, John Penn, with

Cornelius Harnett Cornelius Harnett (April 10, 1723 – April 28, 1781) was an American Founding Father, merchant, and politician from Wilmington, North Carolina. He was a leading American Revolutionary statesman in the Cape Fear region, and a delegate for North ...

and John Williams, signed the Articles of Confederation for North Carolina. Penn retired to Granville County, and he died at a relatively young age of 48 years in 1788. His remains are interred at the

Guilford Courthouse National Military Park Guilford Courthouse National Military Park, at 2332 New Garden Road in Greensboro, Guilford County, North Carolina, commemorates the Battle of Guilford Court House, fought on March 15, 1781. This battle opened the campaign that led to American vic ...

in Greensboro, NC. Like most early counties on the eastern side of the early North Carolina colony, Granville was site of the

Tuscarora Tuscarora may refer to the following: First nations and Native American people and culture * Tuscarora people **''Federal Power Commission v. Tuscarora Indian Nation'' (1960) * Tuscarora language, an Iroquoian language of the Tuscarora people * ...

uprising. Once the natives were defeated in the

Tuscarora War The Tuscarora War was fought in North Carolina from September 10, 1711 until February 11, 1715 between the Tuscarora people and their allies on one side and European American settlers, the Yamassee, and other allies on the other. This was cons ...

, Virginia farmers and their families settled Granville County, where they concentrated on tobacco as a commodity crop. The economy of the region was dependent on slave labor, as tobacco was very labor-intensive to cultivate and process. By the start of the Civil War, Granville planters worked more than 10,000 slaves on their farms, at a time when total county population was 23,396.

Civil War to present

During the Civil War, more than 2,000 men from Granville County served the Confederacy. One company was known as the "Granville Grays." Most of these men fought in the major battles of the war. Surprisingly, many survived until the end of the war. Although the Civil War brought an end to the plantation and slave labor economy that had made Granville County prosperous, the agricultural sector continued to thrive in the county. Freedmen stayed in Oxford to work, and the discovery of bright leaf tobacco stimulated the industry. Many African Americans in Granville County were already free before the start of the Civil War; some had migrated into North Carolina as free people from Virginia in the colonial era. The

free people of color In the context of the history of slavery in the Americas, free people of color (French: ''gens de couleur libres''; Spanish: ''gente de color libre'') were primarily people of mixed African, European, and Native American descent who were not ...

before the Civil War were often descendants of families formed by unions between white women (who were free) and African or African-American men before the American Revolution. They made lasting contributions to the region, particularly through their skilled labor. Several black masons constructed homes for the county's wealthy landowners. Additionally, the bright leaf tobacco crop proved a successful agricultural product for Granville County. The sandy soil and a new tobacco crop that could be "flue-dried" proved a great incentive to farmers and tobacco manufacturers. According to historian William S. Powell, Granville has remained a top tobacco-producing county in North Carolina for several decades. By the late 1800s and early 1900s, Oxford had become a thriving town with new industries, schools, literary institutions, and orphanages, due to jobs created by the bright tobacco crop. In the late 1800s and early 1900s, northern Granville County, together with

Halifax County, Virginia Halifax County is a county located in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 34,022. Its county seat is Halifax. History Occupied by varying cultures of indigenous peoples for thousands of years, in histo ...

were important mining areas. Copper, tungsten, silver and gold were mined in the region. The Richmond to Danville Railroad was a critical lifeline to the northern part of the county and provided an important link for miners and farmers to get their goods to larger markets in

Richmond Richmond most often refers to: * Richmond, Virginia, the capital of Virginia, United States * Richmond, London, a part of London * Richmond, North Yorkshire, a town in England * Richmond, British Columbia, a city in Canada * Richmond, California, ...

and

Washington, DC ) , image_skyline = , image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan ...

. From the late 19th century into the early 20th century, whites in Granville County lynched six African Americans, a number of extralegal murders equalled by two other counties in the state. Most of these killings took place in the decades around the turn of the century. Each of the three counties is tied in having the second-highest number of lynchings per county.''Lynching in America/Supplement: Lynching by County'', 3rd edition
, 2017, Montgomery, Alabama: Equal Justice Initiative, p. 7 Among these was a double lynching in the county seat on December 1, 1881. An armed mob of masked men stormed into the county jail, forcing the jailer to give them the keys. They took out John Brodie and Shadrack Hester, two African-American men charged with murdering a local white man. They took the prisoners to a tree near where the death took place, and hanged them."Lynching in North Carolina"
''Staunton Spectator'' (VA), 06 December 1881; accessed 15 June 2018 During the late 1800s and early 1900s, Granville County played a pivotal role as

tobacco Tobacco is the common name of several plants in the genus '' Nicotiana'' of the family Solanaceae, and the general term for any product prepared from the cured leaves of these plants. More than 70 species of tobacco are known, but the ...

supplier for the southeast United States. With many farms and contracts tied to major tobacco companies, such as

American Tobacco Company The American Tobacco Company was a tobacco company founded in 1890 by J. B. Duke through a merger between a number of U.S. tobacco manufacturers including Allen and Ginter and Goodwin & Company. The company was one of the original 12 members of ...

Lorillard Lorillard Tobacco Company was an American tobacco company that marketed cigarettes under the brand names Newport (cigarette), Newport, Maverick (cigarette), Maverick, Old Gold (cigarette), Old Gold, Kent (cigarette), Kent, True (cigarette), True, ...

Brown & Williamson Brown & Williamson Tobacco Corporation was a U.S. tobacco company and a subsidiary of multinational British American Tobacco that produced several popular cigarette brands. It became infamous as the focus of investigations for chemically enhancing ...

, and

Liggett Group Liggett Group ( ), formerly known as Liggett & Myers Tobacco Company, is the fourth largest tobacco company in the United States. Its headquarters are located in Durham, North Carolina, though its manufacturing facility is 30 miles to the west in ...

, the local farmers became prosperous. During the

Great Depression The Great Depression (19291939) was an economic shock that impacted most countries across the world. It was a period of economic depression that became evident after a major fall in stock prices in the United States. The economic contagio ...

, the tobacco fields were subject to a new plant disease. The Granville Wilt Disease, as it became known, destroyed tobacco crops all across northern

. Botanists and horticulturists found a cure for the disease at the Tobacco Research Center located in Oxford.

Camp Butner Camp Butner was a United States Army installation in Butner, North Carolina during World War II. It was named after Army general and North Carolina native Henry W. Butner. Part of it was used as a POW camp for German prisoners of war in the United ...

, opened in 1942 as a training camp for World War II soldiers, once encompassed more than 40,000 acres in Granville, Person, and Durham counties. During the war, more than 30,000 soldiers were trained at Camp Butner, including the 35th and 89th divisions. The hilly topography at Camp Butner proved helpful in teaching soldiers how to respond to gas bombings and how to use camouflage and cross rivers. Additionally, both German and Italian prisoners served as cooks and janitors at Camp Butner. Today, most of the land that was Camp Butner now belongs to the North Carolina government. Umstead Hospital, which is no longer operational, was located at the Camp Butner site. In the 1950s and 1960s, various manufacturing businesses built up across Granville County, and the region gradually became more industrialized. Today, the manufacturing industry produces cosmetics, tires, and clothing products in Granville County.

Granville County Courthouse

The Granville County Courthouse, of Greek Revival architecture, was built in 1840 and added to the

National Register of Historic Places The National Register of Historic Places (NRHP) is the United States federal government's official list of districts, sites, buildings, structures and objects deemed worthy of preservation for their historical significance or "great artistic v ...

in 1979.

Geography

According to the

U.S. Census Bureau The United States Census Bureau (USCB), officially the Bureau of the Census, is a principal agency of the U.S. Federal Statistical System, responsible for producing data about the American people and economy. The Census Bureau is part of the ...

, the county has a total area of , of which is land and (0.9%) is water.

State and local protected areas

* Ledge Creek Forest Conservation Area * Roberts Chapel Conservation Area

Major water bodies

* Beaver Dam Lake * Beaverdam Creek * Coon Creek *

* Fishing Creek * Island Creek Reservoir * John H. Kerr Reservoir * Lake Butner * Lake Devin *

Roanoke River The Roanoke River ( ) runs long through southern Virginia and northeastern North Carolina in the United States. A major river of the southeastern United States, it drains a largely rural area of the coastal plain from the eastern edge of the App ...

* Smith Creek *

Tar River The Tar River is a river that is approximately long, in northeast North Carolina flowing generally southeast to an estuary of Pamlico Sound. The Tar River becomes the tidal Pamlico River once it underpasses the U.S. Highway 17 Bridge in Washin ...

Adjacent counties

- north *

Mecklenburg County, Virginia Mecklenburg County is a county in the Commonwealth of Virginia. As of the 2020 census, the population was 30,319. Its county seat is Boydton. History Mecklenburg County was organized on March 1, 1765, having split from Lunenburg County in 1 ...

- north * Vance County - east * Franklin County - east *

Wake County Wake County is located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. In the 2020 census, its population was 1,129,410, making it North Carolina's most-populous county. From July 2005 to July 2006, Wake County was the 9th-fastest growing county in the U ...

- south * Durham County - southwest *

Person County Person County is a County (United States), county located in the U.S. state of North Carolina. The population was 39,097 as of the 2020 United States census, 2020 census. The county seat is Roxboro, North Carolina, Roxboro. Person County is inc ...

- northwest

Major highways

* * * * * * * *

Major infrastructure

* Henderson Oxford Airport

Demographics

2020 census

As of the

2020 United States census The United States census of 2020 was the twenty-fourth decennial United States census. Census Day, the reference day used for the census, was April 1, 2020. Other than a pilot study during the 2000 census, this was the first U.S. census to of ...

, there were 60,992 people, 21,400 households, and 15,182 families residing in the county.

2017

As of the

census A census is the procedure of systematically acquiring, recording and calculating information about the members of a given population. This term is used mostly in connection with national population and housing censuses; other common censuses incl ...

of 2017, there were 59,557 people in 20,628 households residing in the county. The

population density Population density (in agriculture: standing stock or plant density) is a measurement of population per unit land area. It is mostly applied to humans, but sometimes to other living organisms too. It is a key geographical term.Matt RosenberPopul ...

was 111.6 people per square mile (43.1/km²). There were 22,827 housing units at an average density of 42.5 per square mile (16.4/km²). The racial makeup of the county was 58% White, 30% Black, 8% Hispanic, 2% Two or more Races, 1% Asian, 1% American Indian. There were 20,628 households, out of which 31.0% had children under the age of 18 living with them. The average household size was 2.90. In the county, the population was spread out, with 22.3% under the age of 18, 8.5% from 18 to 24, 12.0% from 25 to 34, 24.1% from 35 to 49, 20.7% from 50 to 64, and 12.40% who were 65 years of age or older. For every 100 females there were 114.7 males. The median income for a household in the county was $48,196, and the mean household income was $55,849. The median and mean income for a family was $56,493 and $64,311, respectively. The

per capita income Per capita income (PCI) or total income measures the average income earned per person in a given area (city, region, country, etc.) in a specified year. It is calculated by dividing the area's total income by its total population. Per capita i ...

for the county was $21,201. About 7.6% of families and 11.9% of the population were below the

poverty line The poverty threshold, poverty limit, poverty line or breadline is the minimum level of income deemed adequate in a particular country. The poverty line is usually calculated by estimating the total cost of one year's worth of necessities for t ...

, including 14.4% of those under age 18 and 11.1% of those age 65 or over.

Law and government

Granville County is a member of the Kerr-Tar Regional Council of Governments. Granville County is governed by a commissioner/manager form of government under the laws of the state of North Carolina. Granville County has seven commissioner electoral districts. The Granville County Commissioners are Edgar Smoak (Chair), Zelodis Jay (Vice-Chair), David Smith, Tony W. Cozart, Sue Hinman, Timothy Karan, and Russ May County Commissioners
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Politics

Granville County was long a Democratic stronghold, for the most part, if not exclusively, only supporting Democratic candidates in presidential election until 1968, when it supported

George Wallace George Corley Wallace Jr. (August 25, 1919 – September 13, 1998) was an American politician who served as the 45th governor of Alabama for four terms. A member of the Democratic Party, he is best remembered for his staunch segregationist and ...

. Today, it is somewhat of a national bellwether, having from 1992 onward supported the national winner in all the presidential elections with the exception of 2000, when it supported

Al Gore Albert Arnold Gore Jr. (born March 31, 1948) is an American politician, businessman, and environmentalist who served as the 45th vice president of the United States from 1993 to 2001 under President Bill Clinton. Gore was the Democratic Part ...

, and 2020, when it supported

Donald Trump Donald John Trump (born June 14, 1946) is an American politician, media personality, and businessman who served as the 45th president of the United States from 2017 to 2021. Trump graduated from the Wharton School of the University of Pe ...

Education

The Granville County School System contains 9 elementary schools, 4 middle schools, 5 high schools

High Schools

* J.F. Webb High School (Oxford) * J.F. Webb School of Health and Life Sciences * Granville Central High School (Stem) * Granville

Early College The Early College High School Initiative in the United States allows students to receive a high school diploma and an associate degree, or up to two years of college credit, by taking a mixture of high school and college classes. This differs fr ...

High (affiliated with Vance-Granville Community College, which has a campus in

Butner Butner is a town in Granville County, North Carolina, United States. The population was 8,397 as of the 2020 census. Butner was managed by the state of North Carolina from 1947 through 2007. History A bill passed by the North Carolina General ...

) (Creedmoor) *

South Granville High School South Granville High is a high school in Creedmoor, North Carolina, Creedmoor, North Carolina and is part of the Granville County Schools system. History South Granville High School was built in 1962 as a replacement high school for the already e ...

(Creedmoor)

Middle Schools

* Butner-Stem Middle (Butner) (Traditional and Year Round) * G.C. Hawley Middle (Creedmoor) * Mary Potter Middle (Oxford) * Northern Granville Middle (Oxford) (Traditional and Year Round)

Elementary Schools

* Butner-Stem Elementary (Butner) (Traditional and Year Round) * C.G. Credle Elementary (Oxford) * Creedmoor Elementary (Creedmoor) * Mt. Energy Elementary (Creedmoor) * Stovall-Shaw Elementary (Stovall) * Tar River Elementary (Franklinton) * West Oxford Elementary (Oxford) (Traditional and Year Round) * Wilton Elementary(Franklinton)

Communities

Cities

* Creedmoor *

(county seat)

Towns

(largest town) *

Stem Stem or STEM may refer to: Plant structures * Plant stem, a plant's aboveground axis, made of vascular tissue, off which leaves and flowers hang * Stipe (botany), a stalk to support some other structure * Stipe (mycology), the stem of a mushro ...

* Stovall

Townships

* Brassfield * Dutchville * Fishing Creek * Oak Hill * Oxford * Salem * Sassafras Fork * Tally Ho * Walnut Grove

Unincorporated communities

* Berea * Brassfield * Bullock * Culbreth * Cozart * Dexter * Grassy Creek * Grissom *

Lewis Lewis may refer to: Names * Lewis (given name), including a list of people with the given name * Lewis (surname), including a list of people with the surname Music * Lewis (musician), Canadian singer * "Lewis (Mistreated)", a song by Radiohead ...

* Kinton Fork * Northside * Oak Hill *

Providence Providence often refers to: * Providentia, the divine personification of foresight in ancient Roman religion * Divine providence, divinely ordained events and outcomes in Christianity * Providence, Rhode Island, the capital of Rhode Island in the ...

* Shake Rag * Shoofly * Tally Ho * Virgilina * Wilbourns * Wilton

Notable people

* John Penn- Signer of the Declaration of Independence (Stovall) *

James E. Webb James Edwin Webb (October 7, 1906 – March 27, 1992) was an American government official who served as Undersecretary of State from 1949 to 1952. He was the second Administrator of NASA from February 14, 1961, to October 7, 1968. Webb led NAS ...

- NASA Administrator (Tally Ho) *

Sam Ragan Samuel Talmadge Ragan (December 31, 1915 – May 11, 1996)Representative Eva Clayton of North Carolina''Tribute To Sam Ragan''(House of Representatives – May 16, 1996). Retrieved September 10, 2016. was an American journalist, author, poet, a ...

- Journalist (Berea) *

Richard H. Moore Richard Hancock Moore (born Oxford, Granville County, North Carolina, August 30, 1960) was the North Carolina State Treasurer from 2001–2009. He was first elected to that post in 2000 and re-elected in 2004. Career Moore earned both his under ...

- politician, former NC State Treasurer (Oxford) *

Tiny Broadwick Broadwick ready to drop from a Glenn Martin.">Glenn_L._Martin.html" ;"title="Martin T airplane piloted by Glenn L. Martin">Glenn Martin. Georgia Ann "Tiny" Thompson Broadwick (April 8, 1893 in Oxford, North Carolina – 1978 in California), or Ge ...

- first female parachutist (Oxford) * Thad Stem, Jr.- poet (Oxford) * Franklin Wills Hancock, Jr.- U.S. Representative (Oxford) *

Benjamin Chavis Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr. (born January 22, 1948) in Oxford, North Carolina is an African-American civil rights leader and icon, United Church of Christ (UCC) ordained minister, author, journalist, organic chemist, environmentalist, global ...

- Civil Rights leader (Oxford)

References

External links

Granville County government official website

Granville County Chamber of Commerce

Vance-Granville Community College
''(located just on the Vance side of the Vance County-Granville County line)''
Northern Granville, Historic Oak Hill, Multi-Cultural Museum and Library

The Granville Arts Council
{{authority control 1746 establishments in North Carolina Populated places established in 1746